Die.



J. S. DUNCAN.

DIE. APPLICATION FILED APBUEY, 1912.

Patented Dec. 24, 1912 @294 a @go 6 KQL; (Em/ Q4144 Ill TED sTATEs-ritrrsntr OFFICE.

JOSEPH s. DUNCAN, or cmcseo, mmmgmmsosso snnnsssoemfi commas, or carcass, rumors, acenrom'rron or rumors.

ali n ion umamm Patented Dec. 24,1012.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Josarn S. Dunc/in, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the count of Cook and State of Illinois, have invente certain new-and useful Improvements in Dies, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates particularly to dies which are employed in connection with suitable punches for stamping up the printing characters on sheet-metal blanks or plates.

()ne of the principal objects of the present invention is the provision of a die by means of which, when employed in connection with a companion punch, the printing characters on a sheet-metal printin device can be struck up much closer toget er than it has heretofore been possible to form them, thus permitting the rinting characters to be arranged as close y toget or as the impressions made by an or inary typewr iter appear on the paper, so that the impressions made by the printing device will very closely represent typewritten matter.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawin s illustrating a preferred embodiment of tie die.

Referring to the drawings-Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation showing my innroved die and its companion punch in cooperative relation, and a section of a sheetinetal printing device with a number of printing characters formed thereon; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially on the line 2--2 of Fig. 8; Fig. 8 is u ion itudinal sectional view taken substantia ly on the line 8-8 of Fi 2; Fig. -l is a detail sectional view of the ie shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 8; Fig. (i is an elevation of a sheet-metal printing device showing a line of type formed thereon and Fig. is a perspective view of the in em loyed in forming the characters shown in i 5.

Prior to my present invention the pr nting characters on sheet-metal printing d vices have been formed independent y of each other by stam ing them up directly to the required heig it on a meta blank by means of ordinary punches and dies, but because of the construction of the punches and dies the individual printing characters in each line have been spaced some little distance apart. It is, however, very der sirable in someclasses of printing that the individual printing characters in the lines be "located closely together, particularly where-the printing devices are to be employed for printing matter in imitation of pewriting and in present invention is esigned to form t is individual printing characters in each line more closely together than it has heretofore been possible to arrange them.

From the drawings it will be observed that I employ a punch 10 of suitable construction winch cooperates with my iniproved die 11 to stamp u the printing characters 12 on one face a sheet-metal blank 18. The punch is provided at its operating end with a suitable elevated charactor-forming portion 14 the outer Walls of which taper toward the body of the punch, as indicated at 15, and merge at their bases into a fiat portion 16 which forms a flat shoulder or ledge surrounding the character-forming portion.

The die 11 which cooperates with the punch 10 is provided at its operating end with a channel or recess extendin Y transversely across the face of the (ll0 ()l1lllll2 at its bottom a flat face 17 bounded at opposite edges by the flanges or lips 18 which reject longitudinally of the die beyond the see 17. 'lhe character-forming depression 10 similar in shape to the character-forming elevation 14 on the punch is formed on tiie face 17 between the flanges 18. it will be observed therefore, that the face 17 at. the sides of the churacter-forming depression merges directly into the inclined walls of the die while at the top and bottom oi the depression the walls extend some little distance beyond the face of the die in the form of flanges or lips 18.

When the punch and die are brought into 006 erative relation the metal at the top ant bottom of the die, or between the lines of printing characters. is maintained in its normal plane by the tluiiges or lips is the edges 0 which, when the punch and die are forced together, are spaced from the shoulder 10 of the punch a distance equal to the thickness of the sheet-metal blank being operated upon. The metal at the top and bottom of the character bein formed, or, in other words, between the inos of charasters, is, therefore, maintained in its original plane. The metal at the sides of the ill) loo

ltili lit) character, however, is elevated or distorted from its original plane by the punch as far as is permitted by the side edges 21 of the face 17. This distortion of the metal between the adjacent characters is plainly evi dent from an inspection of Fig. 2 where it will be seen that the metal at the left of the character being formed is curved upwardly from its original plane and the metal at the right of the character being formed, or between the adjacent characters, is elevated or drawn upwardly some little distance above its original position.

By constructing the die in the manner above described so that the top and bottom walls of the die project downwardly beyond the side walls, I am enabled to form the printing characters very closely together without unduly stretching the metal between the characters or tearing or breaking it at that point. The square shoulders 22 formed between the ends of the character-forming depression 19 and the lips 18 permit the metal of the blank being worked to crowd into this space and relieve, to a certain extent, the wcdging action which would tend to break off the lips 18 if the die were made with a continuous incline from the outer edges of the lips 18 to the bottom of the character-forming depression. -The stretching or crowding of the metal into the shout ders 22 produces at the top and bottom of the printing characters a sort of panel 23 and the metal instead of being stretched from its original plane to the full depth of the character at one operation is, in reality, stretched twice so that the strain on the metal is somewhat relieved. One stretching takes place between the lower edges of the lips 18 and the face 17 and the other stretch ing takes place between the face 17 and the bottom of the character-forming depression.

From the foregoing it will be understood that by means of my improved die I am enabled to stamp up printing characters on a sheet-metal plate without fracturing or unduly stretching the metal at the tops and bottoms of the characters and am also enabled to form the characters much closer together than has heretofore been possible and without unduly stretching the metal between the characters since at this point the metal is raised or distorted above its original plane.

I have shown in the present instance, for

purposes of illustration merely, a punch and die formed to produce the letter O but it will be obvious, however, that the punch and die can be constructed to produce any desired letter, figure or character. The proportions and the details of construction of my improved die are obyiously capable of considerable variation without departure from the spirit of the invention or sacrificing any of the material advantages thereof.

I claim: 1. A die for forming printing characters in a metal plate, comprising a body having a die face provided therein with a channel open at" each end, there being a printing character forming. element within the channel, the walls of the channel being at the top and bottom respectively of the characterforming element and projecting beyond the same.

2. A die for forming printing characters in a metal plate, comprising a body having a die face provided therein with a channel open at each end, therebeing'a printing character forming element within the channel, the walls of the channel being at the tol and bottom respectively of the character forming element and projecting beyond the same, the edges of the die body at the open ends of the channel being cut away,

3. A die for forming printing characters in a metal plate, comprising a die body hav ing a die face provided with a printing character forming element, and lips projecting from and beyond the plane of the die face at the top and bottom only of the character-forming element to retain the metal being operated upon in its original plane.

4. A die for formingprinting characters in a metal plate, comprising a die body having a die face provided with a printing character forming element, and lips projecting from and beyond the plane of the die face at the top and bottom only of the character-forming element to retain the metal being operated upon in its original plane, the space between the corresponding lips and at the side of the character-forming element being open to permit displacement of the plate at the side of the printing character forming element into said space.

JOSEPH S. DUN CAN. Witnesses: WM. 0. BELT, M. A. KIDDIE. 

